Jon Vickers

While Jon Vickers was best known as a Wagnerian heldentenor, he was also capable of singing lieder, Baroque opera, spinto Italian roles, and even comic roles. His voice and physique both radiated power. He was a man of equally powerful convictions, refusing to sing roles which he considered to be lacking in morality. He made his operatic debut as the Duke in Rigoletto at the Toronto Opera in 1954, and his 1957 Covent Garden debut was in Un ballo in maschera. His first Peter Grimes -- one of the most memorable interpretations -- was at the Met in 1967. In 1969 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He retired in 1988. Vickers was known for having a prickly temperament, but in other ways, he was deeply modest. He insisted that he was merely the interpreter of the real artists: the composers. ~ Anne Feeney